"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." -Ernest Hemingway

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Unexpected day off

It's like a snow day, but without snow. The sun is shining, there's not a cloud in the sky, and the entire family is sick. I got a text message a few minutes ago from Christine saying, "Hi Sarah, Frank and the Boy are sick. So I sugest that you don't come to day so you don't catch any desease." (spelling errors were her, not me, I think they're endearing) Poor family, the Girl has been coughing up a lung with what sounds like bronchitis to me, the Christine got sick a few days ago, and now the entire family is infected with the plague, but I get a day off so wahey!! (that's apparently what English people say when they're excited, or so Leanne tells me) I don't even know what to do with myself.

It's a fairly interesting read, pretty much summarizing what various ethnic groups do before they go to sleep and how they think it affects their sleep as a whole. But the part that I got stuck on was this sentence in the second paragraph:

In the survey, the first of its kind, a representative sample of more than 1,000 African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and whites ages 25 to 60 were asked about their sleep and bedtime routines.

Why are whites the only ethnic group whom it is acceptable to identify with a color? Why didn't they say "more than 1,000 blacks, yellows, browns, and whites..."? Because that would be racist and offensive? All the Asians would say, "I'm not yellow, I'm [insert shade here]" or we'd get accused of "all ____ people look alike" mentalities. I mean, I'm not technically white. I have white sheets, and (though it's admittedly not a huge difference) there's still a discernible contrast between me and my bedding. I think "cream" or "old lace" would be more a more accurate word for my skin tone; too light for "vanilla," too dark for "ivory." Or maybe "cosmic latte," "the average color of the universe." That sounds interesting. You can play too: pick your politically correct skin tone here. (but only if you're "white," if you fall into any other category you'll have to find your own shade page).

And another thing; why are only African Americans referred to as Americans? Am I to assume that the black people polled were Americans, but the Asians are actually in China, Hispanics are in Brazil, and the "whites" are over in France somewhere (you want white, people here are WHITE, skin color AND culture implied)? That can hardly be representative of sleep habits of Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, or white Americans. Or, if we are going to call them just Asians, Hispanics, and whites (we don't get capitalization for our color, apparently), why can't we call them Africans? Is that offensive too?

I don't get race stuff, and our attempts at political correctness to avoid letting black people know they're black (as if they didn't know it already) just make me laugh, and probably think a little too much into it.

Anyway, on to enjoying the rest of my day off. I appreciate the illness prevention measures. I don't want to get the plague and end up spending a week feeling like this.

Oh, also, I just realized the time stamp on my blog was set to Pacific time. So for all those times I supposedly posted at 5 am, please know that that probably never actually happened (we all know I avoid 5 am whenever humanly possible), and should be corrected from here on out.

2 comments:

HAHAHHA. I can't believe no one's commented on this yet. That made me laugh! You're funny. Always have been. ;) It's that dry sense of humor that always makes me buckle. OMG I wish I could have been in the room when you had these epiphanies. You are completely white....i mean right. OHhh so many jokes just in those last 4 words. I'm glad you got white...uh, right...to work on enjoying Paris when you heard you had a day off. Ok seriously, you looked up an article about race?? How did this come about. Explanation please!

I should clarify that I did not do a google search for "race issues" immediately after being given the day off. I think it was one of those cnn headlines, then clicking on various "we recommend" and "around the web" links until I finally found this one which is, in fact, about sleep habits more so than race in and of itself. But really, it wasn't that exciting so I just stuck with the one sentence.